Did you know that due to the lack of trees in Mongolia, some houses are/were made of felt for warmth? Felt making- talk about a useful handicraft! I had a chance last year to go inside an actual yurt (ger) from Mongolia. We have friends who are missionaries there. Last winter when they were home for a visit, they brought a house with them!

It was night time when we went in. This is the layer of felt showing inside at the top of the structure.

I had so much fun doing this felting handicraft with my son last winter, I decided to share it with our group this year. We experienced the process of felting raw wool roving into these adorable acorns.

I used the step-by-step instructions for felting in this book. (I love so many if the ideas in here!!) Then when our balls of wool dried, we hot glued the acorn caps in place.

Here are our supplies: a big bowl with hot water and natural soap, wool roving in some fun colors (no I didn't dye my own, but I've seen some awesome ideas using natural dyes with leaves and roots from outside, or even using kool-aid!) and also the story I read to my son before we began.

Here we are layering the wool and rolling it into balls in the warm soapy water. You can feel it felt right in your hands! There are some fun children's story books about the process of wool becoming garments etc. Warm as Wool, and The Goat in the Rug, and Charlie Needs a New Cloak and A New Coat for Anna. I also want to share a blog with a really neat story and fun pictures! that I showed the kids, of how one family raised their own sheep, sheared the wool, spun yarn and knit their very own sweater for one of their children. Check it out here.Have you ever tried this?

"Pressing flowers is a technique that has been in existence since the Victorian Era. The process was used to preserve plant specimens for cataloguing and identifying, as well as for art. Lewis and Clark collected and pressed many specimens on the Discovery Trail, a feat in itself when you consider the hardships they endured. This link takes you to a site that still contains preserved plants from their journey. Many of their plant specimens were destroyed before they returned to the East Coast. I was able to view an herbarium from the early 1800′s at a local museum, and it was amazing to see the color was still present in the specimens. The collection was very well preserved, every leaf and petal was in place." Quote taken from this site.

This is the press making information and general tutorial we used to make our flower presses for this week's handicraft. Each family made a press, and each child made a card using a pressed flower I had done ahead of time.This one is also a lovely tutorial!!Instead of phone books, we cut 5 sheets of cardboard to layer inside, along with paper towels to lay the flowers on inbetween the cardboard. Water color paper would also work instead of paper towels.

However, I have also pressed flowers using only thick books with no press around it. So don't let your lack of a press or ability to make one, hold you back from pressing flowers.Our flower presses are 10x10 in. and the cardboard inside ours is 8x8. The 3/8 bolts are 5 inches long.Great instructions for applying pressed flowers to paper can be found here. We used glue sticks and contact paper for basic supplies.

It’s the time of year for people in line at the grocery store to ask my 4 year old son, “So, are you going to preschool this year?” and my friends’ children are starting in school now. I told myself I was not going to feel pressured to write lesson plans and schedule two preschool mornings a week at home, but I am still fighting my own stereotypes of what I always imagined homeschooling my children would look like. In reality learning is already built into our everyday lives. For a morning in a typical preschool classroom the children would sing songs, have free play, read stories, have snack, take walks, do crafts, learn letters and numbers etc. All those things we already do; they just are not scheduled all in the same two mornings a week. As far as ‘starting’ preschool with my son, we will just keep doing what we are doing. We also picked one thing to focus on- letters first as that is what he seems to be drawn to right now. I pulled out all our letter activities and set up a little play area in the kitchen, because I can't resist!

I gained a better view of what his play could look like as well as my role in teaching him his letters after reading this:

“The Alphabet.––As for his letters, the child usually teaches himself. He has his box of ivory letters and picks out p for pudding, b for blackbird, h for horse, big and little, and knows them both. But the learning of the alphabet should be made a means of cultivating the child's observation: he should be made to see what he looks at. Make big B in the air, and let him name it; then let him make round O, and crooked S, and T for Tommy, and you name the letters as the little finger forms them with unsteady strokes in the air. To make the small letters thus from memory is a work of more art, and requires more careful observation on the child's part. A tray of sand is useful at this stage. The child draws his finger boldly through the sand, and then puts a back to his D; and behold, his first essay in making a straight line and a curve. But the devices for making the learning of the 'A B C' interesting are endless. There is no occasion to hurry the child: let him learn one form at a time, and know it so well that he can pick out the d's, say, big and little, in a page of large print.”“Let the child alone, and he will learn the alphabet for himself: but few mothers can resist the pleasure of teaching it; and there is no reason why they should, for this kind of learning is no more than play to the child, and if the alphabet be taught to the little student, his appreciation of both form and sound will be cultivated. When should he begin? Whenever his box of letters begins to interest him. The baby of two will often be able to name half a dozen letters; and there is nothing against it so long as the finding and naming of letters is a game to him. But he must not be urged, required to show off, teased to find letters when his heart is set on other play.”- Mason, Vol 1 pg 201-2

We began our study of letters with just one. The first letter of his name. To that we added the rest of his name. Then small words like mom and dad. Some letters came easily to him, like ‘o’ because it is the shape the mouth makes, and ‘s’ because it looks like a snake. It has been a delightful beginning so far, always keeping it fun and when he has had enough, we stop. Simple as that. There is no curriculum telling us which letters he must learn on what day in order to be completed by the end of the year, or what worksheet he must fill out on a given day. It is more natural, a part of our everyday lives, as he is interested. And because of that, his learning stays with him.I also made myself a list of other activity ideas I could switch out to help keep his interest fresh. I might even let him choose from the list when we decide it’s time for a change. My hopes were that in a few weeks when this baby is born, a list like this will save me some energy and thought while still allowing me to feel like I have not completely put preschool on hold, therefore hindering my son’s learning in some way. New mother thoughts, I guess. I like to feel prepared.

Soft ABCs sewn last summer from fabric scraps

Alphabet Center Activity IdeasCornmeal writingABC books & homemade one with photos of child or magazine cut-outsFlashcards with clothes pins on a stringMagnet letters in a cookie sheetSand ABC cardsWindow clingsSmall White board or chalk boardHandwriting Without Tears wood pieces and letter building cardsSmooth rocks with letters onSmall craft wood lettersChild’s name spelling manipulativesPencil/PaperSoft ABCsABC Bingo or Name Bingo (or other game)Playdough ‘snakes’ formed into letters (on a card- like HWT cards) OR playdough with ABC cookie cuttersABC cereal in plastic easter egg- treasure huntPost it notes with letters on them to stick placesShaving cream writing

Food related:ABC soup/pastasugar cookie cut outsstore-bought ABC crackersbread or pretzel dough shaped into his namejello jigglers cut out in his nameveggie stick slices laid out to form lettersketchup writing on a plate or sandwich